"Bangalore does not have a good convention centre tohold such an international summit where about 3,000 scientists and students areparticipating. It is crowded, polluted and has become too commercial," atop space scientist said in Mysore on Saturday.
Ironically, Bangalore's loss is Mysore's gain, as thesprawling green campus of IT bellwether Infosys Ltd on the outskirts of thecity, 150 km from Bangalore, has plenty of "space" and world classfacilities host a week-long mega event with lodging and boarding facilities intow.
"As we have to hold 28 parallel sessions and a host ofother conferences simultaneously for so many delegates from 75 countries, thereis no city or convention centre in the country that could provide us the spaceor facilities required as here, " Physical Research Laboratory Councilchairman and former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman U.R. Raotold IANS.
When India was selected to hold the 39th biennial ScientificAssembly of the Committee on Space Research (Cospar-2012) after 33 years, thestate-run ISRO began to hunt for an ideal venue to host the mega event.
"Even the convention centre in Hyderabad where we heldthe International Astronautical Congress in September 2007 does not have therequired space or facilities to hold so many parallel sessions and otheractivities," Mr Rao, who holds the Cospar scientific programme committeechair, recalled.
Spread over 100 acres of sprawling meadows, the Infosyscampus has the world's largest leadership institute and training centre withultra-modern facilities and aesthetics.
The masterfully crafted convention centre in the campus hasnumerous conference halls, with state-of-the art interiors and spacious seatingfacilities.
"Over the years for various reasons, Bangalore has beengiven a miss by many organisations holding MICE (meetings, interventions,conferences and exhibitions) due to its notorious traffic snarls, choc-a-blocroads, vehicular and noise pollution, high hotel tariffs and logisticoverheads," a space agency official said.
Barring a salubrious climate, Bangalore has lost its charmand calm for hosting international conferences on big scale in the absence ofan eco-system and conducive atmosphere for serious deliberations.
"In contrast, Mysore is more beautiful, calmer and morepeaceful for such contemplative brain-storming sessions," Mr Rao quipped.
Praising Infosys co-founder N .R. Narayana Murthy and otherco-founders of the global software major for creating such an excellent campuswith world class facilities, a delegate said governments and organisationsconducting MICE events should learn from the IT company how to create such aneco-system.
"It is lamentable that what Infosys or one Murthy hascreated in Mysore, the entire administration in Bangalore could not even in adecade," the delegate observed.
